In the first place, as at present advised, I consider the route impracticable for mail purposes.
In the second place, the sums of money yearly drawn from the treasury for contracts, which have for several years been, and are still in force, for the transportation of the mails between the Atlantic and the Pacific, are very considerable, amounting to about $731,868. In view of this fact, and of the many sections and neighborhoods, in the different States, which are either greatly restricted in, or deprived altogether of mail facilities, it appears to me both inexpedient and unjust to go into the expenditure of a still further sum of $424,000 for the service in question.
Moreover, I disapprove of the principle upon which this contract is made. In my opinion, if the Postmaster General has the right to make such a contract at all, it ought to be made without the restriction or limitation contained in yours, by which its force or validity is made to depend upon the passage of an appropriation by Congress to carry it into effect. I am unwilling to recognise any contingency of this kind, because, although the contractors may, under such conditional arrangement, establish no legal claim for compensation, they may, nevertheless, go on and incur expenses, in the expectation that they will be paid, and Congress, more from private sympathy than from public policy or right, be at length induced to yield to a measure to which its prior sanction never could have been obtained.
I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES CAMPBELL,
Postmaster General.
Robt. G. Rankin, Esq.,
Pres’t of the Mexican Ocean Mail and Inland Co., N. Y.
Post Office Department, September 23, 1853.
Sir: Should the proprietors of the Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and San Francisco line apply for mail to take over their route, under the conditional order of the late Postmaster General, dated 7th March, 1853, before delivering such mail to them, you will report to department for further instructions.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,